Friday, 29th March 2024 09:05
Home / Uncategorized / PCA 2013: Dimitar Danchev wins monster pot to take Day 4 chip lead

If you threw ice-water in Dimitar Danchev’s face, he wouldn’t flinch. The water would freeze, and he would turn back to the poker game he’s playing. Today, that game is the 2013 PCA main event, a tournament in which he took a monster chip lead for the night with three hands remaining. Danchev has 4,080,000 in chips, the lead, and a poker face so cold, children shouldn’t dare look at it.

Dimitar-Danchev_2013-PCA-Main-Event_Day-4_Giron_8JG6610.jpg

Dimitar Danchev

What you need to know about Danchev’s lead is this: with only three hands remaining in the night, there was some speculation he could edge out Ryan Fair and Owen Crowe for the chip lead. Ten minutes later, the speculation was over after Day 3 chip leader Patrick Kelly’s stack sat in ruins. It all happened when Kelly got crazy with a three-bet in the cut-off. When Danchev four-bet him, Kelly called with 6â™  7â™ 

On a flop of Q♥ 10♥ 7♣ . Danchev led into it. He had pocket kings and a liquid nitrogen-frozen face. It was only after Kelly shoved all-in that Danchev melted. He struggled. He thought. He mulled. And then he found the ice-stare again. He called. Kelly, disgusted, opened his hand and watched the turn and river come out, both deuces. Kelly stumbled away stunned and Danchev sat emotionless.

Meanwhile, 2010 Spring Championship of Online main event champion Ryan Fair (2,496,000 in chips) is focused. When a beautiful woman approaches asking to interview him, he demurs. He denies the request politely. The simple fact is, he is channeling every bit of energy toward his effort to be the next PCA champion.

8G2A9868_PCA2013_Ryan_Fair_Neil Stoddart.jpg

Ryan Fair

Nearly sixty players started Day 4 at noon on Friday. By 7:30pm, only 21 remained. Tournament Director Mike Ward called play to a halt and told everyone to come back tomorrow to play down to the final table.

Among the other names at the top of the counts are Owen Crowe, Yann Dion, Joao Nogueira, Jerry Wong, 2012 WCOOP Player of the Series Mikal Blomlie, and George Clyde-Smith (a $10 PokerStars qualifier). You can see a full list of the remaining players and their chip counts on the 2013 main event live coverage page.

Here’s Dion talking to Sarah Grant about his journey here.


Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov had a chance to be the next person to win poker’s Triple Crown. He was the last Team Pro standing, and he brought with him a WPT title and WSOP bracelet to his name. A win in the EPT-sanctioned PCA would complete the crown. It wasn’t to be. He finished with four tables remaining for $47,000. He was preceded out the door by new Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody (47th place/$32,000) and new Team Online member Tatiana Barausova (46th place/$32,000).

pca_2013_eugene_katchalov.jpg

Eugene Katchalov

Thumbnail image for Tatiana-Barausova_pca10_me_d3.jpg

Tatiana Barausova

8G2A9738_PCA2013_Jake_Cody_Neil Stoddart.jpg

Jake Cody

To take a look back at how the entire day played out, chips counts, and the people who cashed, you can can see our 2013 PCA main event live coverage page.

Also, don’t miss PCA side event results coverage.

Here’s all the other news from the day.

Main event links:
Day 4 kicking off with talented field
Do online poker skills translate to live poker? Yep.
Five players turning ten dollars into PCA history
Eugene Katchalov alive for Triple Crown
Four from four for Eddy Sabat
Anatomy of a hand

Links to other news:
Win a TCOOP ticket with @PokerStarsBlog
Kick off your shoes for the Photo Pimp Off’s fourth finalist
Jason Mercier and Shaun Deeb’s Open Face Chinese Poker lecture video
Getting stuck into the side events
Henrik Eide beats Hellmuth, Jelassi, Chen and Failla to title and $122,220
A Bahamas history lesson (and an aphrodisiac)

The World Cup of Poker
The World Cup of Poker takes centre stage
“The Rest of the Story” from World Cup of Poker history

Day 5 will kick off at noon ET Saturday with the final 21 players returning to play down to the eight-handed final table.

Until then, we bid you goodnight.

Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging

Study Poker with Pokerstars Learn, practice with the PokerStars app